Bueno River (Spanish: ''Río Bueno'') is a river in southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. It originates in

Ranco Lake Ranco Lake ( es, Lago Ranco) is located in Ranco Province of Chile. It is the largest lake of Los Ríos Region and the fourth largest in Chile. Administratively Ranco Lake is split into three communes; La Unión, Futrono and Lago Ranco. The l ...

and like most of Chile rivers it drains into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

at the southern boundary of the Valdivian Coastal Reserve. Its lower flow forms the border between

Osorno Province Osorno Province ( es, Provincia de Osorno) is one of the four provinces in the southern Chilean region of Los Lagos (X). The province has an area of and a population of 221,496 distributed across seven communes ( Spanish: ''comunas''). The provi ...

and

Ranco Province El Ranco Province ( es, link=no, Provincia del Ranco) is one of two provinces of the southern Chilean region of Los Ríos. It is named after Ranco Lake shared by the communes (''comunas'') of Futrono and Lago Ranco. The lake is drained by the ...

. Traditionally it marks also the northern boundary of the indigenous

Huilliche The Huilliche , Huiliche or Huilliche-Mapuche are the southern partiality of the Mapuche macroethnic group of Chile. Located in the Zona Sur, they inhabit both Futahuillimapu ("great land of the south") and, as the Cunco subgroup, the north hal ...

territory known as

Futahuillimapu Futahuillimapu or Fütawillimapu is a traditional territory of the Huilliche people. Futahuillimapu spans the land between Bueno River and Reloncaví Sound. Futahuillimapu means "great land of the south." Back in the 18th century when this territ ...

. The river passes through Río Bueno commune and city that takes name from the river. The major tributaries of the Bueno River are the

Pilmaiquén River Pilmaiquén River is a river of Chile that makes up part of the border between Los Lagos Region and Los Ríos Region. Its source is Puyehue Lake and flows northwesterly for about 68 km until discharging into Bueno River. Located near the ori ...

and the

Rahue River Rahue River () is a river of Chile located in Los Lagos Region. It rises at the western end of the Rupanco Lake. In its middle course, the river flows through the city of Osorno in a north-south direction. Rahue river empties into the Bueno River ...

, joining the river from the south. The former is the outlet of

Puyehue Lake Puyehue Lake (), ( Mapudungun: ''puye'', "small fish" and ''hue'', "place") is an Andean piedmont lake on the border of Los Lagos Region with Los Ríos Region of Chile. Puyehue is a lake of glacial origin. Several times during the Pleistocene gla ...

and the latter is the outlet of

Rupanco Lake Rupanco Lake is located in Los Lagos Region of Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long an ...

. Starting upstream the following settlements lie along the river: Puerto Nuevo at the source, Río Bueno,

Trumao Trumao is the name of a soil of the Andosol order found in southern and central Chile. Trumaos are formed from young volcanic ash, by volcanic ash redeposited by aeolian processes or by volcanic ash mobilized as alluvium. Trumaos are characterized ...

, Llancacura, and

La Barra La Barra is a resort in the Maldonado Department of southeastern Uruguay. Location and geography The resort is located on Route 10 (Uruguay), Route 10, south of its junction with Ruta Interbalnearia. Its west coast is on the mouth of Arroyo Mald ...

at the outflow in the ocean. The original

name for the river was ''Huenuleufu'', a combination of ''huenu'' "upper" and ''leufü'' "river". ''Río Bueno'' is thus a

hybrid word A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages. Common hybrids The most common form of hybrid word in English combines Latin and Greek parts. Since many prefixes and suffixes in English are of Latin ...

with ''huenu'' being replaced by

phono-semantic matching Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is the incorporation of a word into one language from another, often creating a neologism, where the word's non-native quality is hidden by replacing it with Phonetics, phonetically and semantically similar words or ...

with the Spanish word ''bueno'' "good". In 1654 Bueno River was the site of the

battle of Río Bueno A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

between a Spanish slave-hunting expedition and local Mapuche-Huilliches. This battle ended in clear defeat for the Spanish forces whose

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maxi ...

broke apart causing many casualties. On January 27, 1759, the river was again the site of a Spanish-Huilliche battle. In the years following the battle the Spanish established a Franciscan mission and a

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

next to the river.

References

External links

Rivers of Chile Rivers of Los Ríos Region Rivers of Los Lagos Region {{Chile-river-stub